The Portland Trail Blazers play host to the Phoenix Suns at Moda Center on Saturday.

The Suns (1-1) were one of the surprises of the 2020-21 season, but it's hard to understand what we've seen this year. They collapsed in the opener at home against the Denver Nuggets but came back to give the Los Angeles Lakers a beatdown on the road. A two-game sample size is tough to figure, but it's even more challenging when the performances differ so much. The Suns actually outscored the Lakers 48-8 in the paint through three-quarters of that blowout win, and that's the free-flowing offense we saw last season. It remains to be seen which team shows up the rest of the way but having some momentum in this back-to-back is hopefully the thing they need to keep them rolling.

The Trail Blazers (0-1) had an ugly loss in their debut, taking a 124-121 home defeat at the hands of the Sacramento Kings. That's a team that Portland needs to beat at home, and it has question marks flying all around this club. The defense was downright atrocious last season, and allowing 124 points in the opener is undoubtedly not a good sign. What is a good sign is the fact that C.J. McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic played so well. We all know that Damian Lillard will show up every night but getting more consistency from both of those players is the thing to get them over the top. What remains to be seen is if this team has enough talent to compete with the elite, though. That's been the issue with this club for years, and it certainly doesn't get any easier here, considering they face off with the Western Conference champs.

Phoenix swept the three-game season series over Portland last year, winning by an average of 13 points per game. Before that, the Trail Blazers won 12 of their previous 14 meetings with the Suns.